Possibly a reason that harness racing is tolerated by federal and state governments is it is a form of welfare. Among the stall cleaners, grooms, drivers and some trainers there is a large percentage that could not function with the demands of a real job. If racing were to end a large number of these people would end up on state and federal welfare programs. By using money that is derived from gambling, essentially taxing the the other forms of gambling, to subsidize racing it keeps people off of direct welfare. Nobody really cares about the horse. The horse is just a pawn, in that it is needed to perpetuate the system. There are people that have learned to use this welfare system to their advantage. These people know that for this to continue there has to be lax enforcement of rules and regulations. You can drill down into the various racing regulating bodies. You can see they have to have insiders governing to perpetuate this. If you think anybody cares about what is happening in harness racing in my opinion you are clueless.